Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jun 2019
368 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
Award-winning author Michael Swanwick returns to the gritty, post-industrial faerie world of his New York Times Notable Book The Iron Dragon's Daughter with the standalone adventure fantasy The Iron Dragon's Mother.
Caitlin of House Sans Merci is the young half-human pilot of a sentient mechanical dragon. Returning from her first soul-stealing raid, she discovers an unwanted hitchhiker.
When Caitlin is framed for the murder of her brother, to save herself she must disappear into Industrialized Faerie, looking for the one person who can clear her.
Unfortunately, the stakes are higher than she knows. Her deeds will change her world forever.
"Discworld meets Faust. They do not like each other. Philip Pullman picks up the pieces." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"This epic is full of carefully crafted lands, characters, and creatures, and readers will savor each page." - Publishers Weekly
"Twisted in the right way, with tart and tricksy language you can swirl around in your mouth like good wine, it is a perfect, perfect book." - Jane Yolen
"Filled with treats and surprises, like a box full of bonbons and firecrackers. Prepare to be delighted and horrified, tickled and amazed." - Eileen Gunn
"Michael Swanwick's stories are woven with an artisan's skill, his adventures with a pilot's sense for the heights, a marksman's aim, and a poet's ear. I've loved his work for decades and am always excited to see something new from him."- Fran Wilde
"Enter this new novel set in his modern, deeply disrupted Faerie... . You will eventually emerge from these pages, but you'll wish you didn't have to. You'll wish you could keep reading forever." - Nisi Shawl, author of Everfair
This information about The Iron Dragon's Mother was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Michael Swanwick is an institution in both science fiction and fantasy literature. He has served as an influence on genre fiction as a whole as well as an inspiration to many leading authors. He has been a finalist multiple times for every major award in science fiction/fantasy, from the Nebula to the Hugo.
Michael is the author of The Mongolian Wizard novels as well Stations of the Tide, The Dragons of Babel, and Chasing the Phoenix.
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